Sterling fired the home side ahead with just 38 seconds gone before it was game, set and match when Christian Kabasele put it through his own net 12 minutes later
MANCHESTER CITY will have two reasons to celebrate this May.
Not only will they have the Premier League title back but it will be 50 years since they last lifted the old First Division.
Fans of a certain age still talk about that team, filled with stars who now tread the lounges here pre match to be feted by the faithful.
As Mike Summerbee, Colin Bell and Francis Lee meet and greet high in the main stand the debate will rage as to which of them would get into this team.
For too long it was never even been a debate.
There was not a team or group of players representing City who could lift this club to the heights they did.
The fear was they would never find any who would again.
They have, and some, and some more.
Perhaps a more significant anniversary this year will be the ten years since the takeover by Sheikh Mansour.
It has been hard work, planning, well over a billion spent, four managers and many players to get to this point under the Abu Dhabi ownership.
Not just to a point where silverware is on it’s way. It came under the two previous managers.
But a point where they win with a style that resonates beyond the Premier League.
As Summerbee said ahead of this game: “The football has been on a level I never imagined this football club that I love so much would ever be capable of.”
City want to conquer the globe and it is still what happens on the pitch that is the biggest piece of marketing.
Just as it has been in the red half of Manchester.
It was not the fact that they did it, it was how they did it.
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It will be how this team is doing this that will make a differnce as it did with Guardiola’s Barcelona side.
The Silva service and Sterling work and that’s not the chefs and staff in the new Tunnel Club I’m talking about
Even the staunchest United fan would admit……actually no they probably wouldn’t.
The show got undeway after just 40 seconds last night for a rare blip to be addressed as the draw at Selhurst Park was put behind them.
That was the time it took before David Silva fed Leroy Sane down the left and his cross was turned in first time by Raheem Sterling at the far post.
That is 18 goals now for the club’s top scorer, what a transformation we have seen in him under Guardiola.
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It was two on 13 minutes with Silva again involved this time feeding De Bruyne down the right and his cross was turned past his own goalkeeper by Christian Kabasele.
Even if the Watford player had missed it Sergio Aguero was lurking.
De Bruyne now has 10 assists more than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues.
Silva had missed four of the last five games due to family reasons as he was allowed time with his partner Yessica back in Spain following complications with her pregnancy.
Last night he was back and what a joy he is to watch on nights like this.
He runs with the ball, but never looks at it. It rolls around the edge of his boot.
Opponents just can’t get the ball from him.
They can’t get the ball off City.
It could have been four or five before the break with de Bruyne the stand out player. That is some recovery from the Jason Puncheon challenge.
He had a free kick tipped onto the bar and created two more chances that could have lead to first half goals.
He did create a third on 62 minutes firing a low cross after a short corner routine that Gomes could only palm to Aguero to poke home.
De Bruyne just wanted the ball all the time, and when he did a flying back heel to Leroy Sane to set up a second half chance there were ‘aaaaghs’ around The Etihad at a thing of beauty.
That’s what it is at The Etihad right here, right now.
The Watford consolation scored from close range by Andre Gray did on 81 minutes did little to spoil the mood.
The legends are loving it as the greatest chapter in the club’s history is written before them.
